Bolivia Guide
Santa Cruz and the Eastern Lowlands
Santa Cruz
Set among the steamy, tropical lowlands just beyond the last Andean foothills, the city of SANTA CRUZ has emerged in recent decades as the economic powerhouse of Bolivia. An isolated frontier town until the middle of the twentieth century, the city has grown in the last fifty years to become the second biggest in the country, a sprawling metropolis that now rivals La Paz for power and influence, with a booming economy based on oil and gas, timber and cattle, and large-scale agro-industry. Largely because most of it is so new, Santa Cruz has little to match the colonial charm of highland cities like Sucre and Potosí, and few conventional tourist sights beyond a few mediocre museums and an architecturally unexciting cathedral. But while some travellers find its brash modernity, commercialism and pseudo-Americanism unappealing, others enjoy its blend of dynamism and tropical insouciance, and the lively optimism of its inhabitants.